[08] HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RUN SDF?

     So you're curious?  Well, hopefully you'll be more willing to
     donate if you know what it cost to run SDF.  I'm looking for
     ways to make this information a bit more public so that it will
     hopefully increase donations.

     In the old days, when we had 9 telephone lines, the cost was
     relatively high.  GTE phone lines could be as cheap as $24 a
     month, but SWBell lines could be $9.99 a month.  How?  Because
     I stripped everything off even DTMF (touch tone) dialing!  But
     I still remember the nightmare of $380 a month phone bills.

     ISDN was about $48 a month and would be later used to replace
     two analogue lines (an analogue phone line could run over a single
     B channel).  No real savings with GTE, but nonetheless was tried.
     So here are the rough numbers.

     Old Old Days .. 1987-1989 

     Basically $0, as Ted's mother covered the cost of the dedicated 
     line (214-358-xxxx) and Ted got our first computer on his birthday
     from ComputerCraft in Dallas in June of 1985 for $1065.95.  A 5mb
     hard drive was purchased in 1989 prior to going with UNIX, but 
     again other than the IBM XT running briefly running citadel BBS
     Ted's mom covered the cost for the 386 20.
     (See http://sdf.org/?tour/1985/index)

     Old Days .. 1990-1993 (when we went multiline):
 
     Rent:        $4200 a year 
     Phones:      $1344 a year  (four/five lines GTE)
     Electricity:  $180 a year
     Network:        $0 a year  (thank you Eric, Doug & Roy)
     -------------------------
     Total:       $6084 

     1994-1996

     Rent:        $5580 a year
     Phones:      $1320 a year  (nine/ten lines SWB)
     ISDN:         $576 a year
     Electricity:  $200 a year
     Network:        $0 a year  (thank you Eric & Aaron)
     -------------------------
     Total:       $7876

     1997-2000

     Rent:           $0 a year  (thank you MALR)
     ISDN:         $600 a year  (two phone lines GTE)
     DSL:         $3588 a year  (768k/256k)
     Electricity:  $230 a year
     -------------------------
     Total:       $4878

     2001-2003

     Rent:       $14436 a year  (includes circuit provision)
     DSL:         $3480 a year  (1.5mbit/1.5mbit)
     Electricity   $360 a year
     -------------------------
     Total:      $18276
 
     2003 - 2009
 
     Rent:       $15300 a year  (includes multi-DS3 circuit provision)
     DSL:         $1329 a year  (DSL memberships)
     Dialup:      $2060 a year  (Dialup memberships + POP lease)  
     Misc:         $248 a year
     -------------------------
     Total:      $18937

     2010 - Present

     Rent (SEA): $11832 a year  (full cabinet and storage + network)
     Rent (DFW):  $1800 a year  (4U + network allocation)
     Rent (EU):      $0 a year  (1U donated value is 840 EU/year) 
     DSL:         $1329 a year  (DSL Memberships)
     Dialup:      $2060 a year  (Dialup memberships + POP lease)
     -------------------------
     Total:      $17021             

  Interested in helping out now?  Try typing 'pledge'.  Thank you!!

